U.S. Patent Publications 20050127524 entitled “Solid Electrolyte Switching Device” and 20040089882 entitled “Electronic Device Having Controllable Conductance” have emanated from the same research group as the present invention.
These two applications describes switches formed using a solid electrolyte layer that is both an ionic and electronic conductor. Examples are silver sulfide or silver selenide. A silver sulfide layer is mobile in an electronic field, and devices switched between ON and OFF states when the sulfide layer switches between bridging the gap between electrodes and not bridging that gap.
The present device differs from those described in these publications in several ways. The device does not require a mixed ionic/electronic conductor; the device of the invention uses a self-assembled monolayer to define the spacing between two electrodes; the switching speed in the inventive devices is controlled by the identity of the self-assembled monolayer and, the claimed device does not require the presence of sulfur.
Furthermore it is much more difficult to fabricate the devices described in these publications than it is to fabricate the devices of the present invention.
To fabricate the devices of the publications requires “a substrate in which surface is coated with an insulation layer; a first interconnection layer set on said substrate; an ion supplying layer set on said first interconnection layer; a solid electrolyte layer set on said ion supplying layer, an interlevel insulating layer having a via hole set to cover said first interconnection layer, said ion supplying layer, and said solid electrolyte; a counter electrode layer set to contact said solid electrolyte layer through said via hole of said interlevel insulating layer, and a second interconnection layer set to cover said counter electrode layer.” See, U.S. Patent Publication 20050127524.
To fabricate the silver self-assembled monolayer switch, all that is required is formation of a self-assembled monolayer on a silver surface, followed by contacting that monolayer using a second electric conducting electrode.